Wednesday, September 27, 2006

1. Mark your place in a book. It seems so obvious, yet relatively few students seem to do it. When your professor picks up with the poem or short story or chapter of the day, you'll be on the same page.

2. Mark the beginning and ending points for a reading assignment: immediate feedback on your progress.

3. Mark selected readings in an anthology.

4. Mark the notes or glossary at the back of a book for easy repeat access.

5. Mark passages in a library book.

6. Keep several Post-its on the inside cover of a datebook, planner, or notebook: now you're prepared to leave a note anywhere.

7. When you sit down to work, make a small-scale to-do list on a Post-it and stick it to your desktop.

8. Leave a Post-it on your alarm clock or inside doorknob as a reminder.

9. Avoid fines and late fees: put Post-its with due dates on library books and DVD rentals.

10. When there's no Scotch tape, cut the sticky edge from a Post-it to use as fake tape.

11. Use the sticky edge as a temporary label for a folder.

12. Fold the sticky edge into a hinge to hold a piece of paper or a postcard on a wall.

13. Wrap the sticky edge around a cable to identify it.

14. Use the sticky edge to clean between the keys of your computer keyboard.

15. Jot down less familiar keyboard shortcuts on a Post-it to keep by your computer.

16. Which way does the envelope go when you feed it into the printer? Draw a diagram on a Post-it and stick it on your printer.

17. If you drive an older car that doesn’t remind you that you've left your headlights on, use a Post-it as a reminder. When you put your lights on in the daytime, stick a Post-it note on the driver's side window (in a spot where it won't impede your vision. When you leave your car, you'll see the note and remember why it's there.

18. Keep a Post-it on the refrigerator and jot down what you need from the supermarket.

19. When you go to the supermarket, remove the Post-it from the fridge and stick it on your wallet. At the store, stick the note to the handle of your cart and have both hands free for shopping. Toss the note when you leave the store.

20. Splurge! Use a whole pad of Post-its to make a flip book. (Thanks to my son Ben for this last tip.)

[The photograph above is of my Penguin paperback of Marcel Proust’s The Guermantes Way, the third volume of In Search of Lost Time.]

comments: 2

Thank you, Diana. They look elegant and would be great to mark passages.

I'm using Post-its because the margins in these Proust paperbacks leave very little room for writing, and because I'm reluctant to commit notes to the margins the first time through. (That's not my usual attitude, but this is Proust!) A comment from a librarian on the lifehack.org site though warns that Post-its will damage pages. That's apparently common library advice, though I never heard it before today.

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